POLL: Good or Evil?

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Now that i think of it, i never play anything but good characters with a good or neutral party...

Maybe that is how i am as a person

 

I always play good, it always feels good when someone says how much you helped them. Not to mention you get to fight evil.

Playing evil is the most challenging, at least for me.

 

I like to play either chaotic good or neutral evil. I havent played P&P D&D before, but from what I read in the guide, you have a lot of freedom by choosing thoose allignments. With Chaotic Good you can always say you screwed up accidently and with neutral evil , you can literally do what you want. Just say you had a good mood today and tadaa Lawfull alignments are the hardest to play I think, since you have to abide rules, so either neutral or lawful neutral would be the hardest. To keep the rep low isnt that hard, just kill some poor fella on the streets and youll rep decrease instantly. There arent that many things you can do normally to get a decrease in reputation.

 

"Generally. However, what matters is how you act when there's neither hope of profit nor fear of punishment."

Wow -- just like real life....

As Dr. Emilio Lizardo once said (although I can't remember who he was quoting): "Character is what you are in the dark."

So the question is, how would you behave if you knew no one would ever find out about it...?

 

Take the example of the genie with Blackrazor. You know at this point you can crush a genie with ease and gain an excellent sword. Why would an evil person not do this?

That's the real sticking point for me. Neutral evil especially- motivated by quick and easy profit? If you turn down such an easy gain it's poor RPing IMHO.

 

...Or, you could be a lawful/neutral evil character who had made a deal with Genies outside Trademeet, because you thought it would be a challange to kill the Rakshasa. You found out then that Genie-kin held their promises and were trustworthy.

Now, this character could either make a deal with the Genie, because he did not think such creatures should be enslaved (respect for them). Making a deal to avoid straining yourself in battle. Is that a 'good' trait or a devious 'evil' trait.

In my opinion, such a thing would be an 'Evil' thing to do, since you are above all else serving your own interests. Being 'Evil' is not all about commiting evil acts. Think about the Seven Sins. Not one of them describes killing others.

In fact, I could quite successfully roleplay BG2 with an Evil character doing all the good paths for his own interest. In that case, you go back to another argument; "Is gaining a high/good reputation allowed for an evil character?", where my answer would be "yes" because he would be serving his own interests (cheaper stores, mass respect etc). Whereas a good character would do it simply to be a 'good person'.

Contrary to popular belief, evil characters don't do things just to be 'evil people'. They kill innocents because they think it's fun, they steal because they like material things, they torture because they enjoy seeing people suffer. They don't do it just for the sake of being nasty.

Just my view on it.

(@Sparhawk: Roleplaying is the eyes of the beholder. Or something. In any case, no one can 'define' an alignment, or even more 'define' what good and bad roleplaying is. If someone wants to roleplay evil, you can do that well or not well I guess, but you can in no way define what his or her characters' interpretation of 'Evil' is.)